The Great Indian College Romance

22. Sabotage and Redemption

The applause was still going on when I descended the stage. Siddharth was at my side immediately with Virat and a few other people in tow. 

"They are going to start the next category in a bit. I let them know everything so they are trying to contact other party members for help." 

Siddharth informed me. 

"Did you talk to Yug? Did they reach the hospital?" I asked.

He nodded. 

"Yug texted me. Angad is being examined right now. Shreyas and Deepani were sorry to miss our performance but they left for the hospital. Your stuff is in my car. We will leave right after we are done with our performance" then he led me away from the hubbub, "Are you okay? Really okay?" 

I took a second to answer, "Yes, I think I am mostly okay. Now if we could just rest assured that Angad is fine too. I am so angry at the fact that he marched in there alone." 

"Yeah, I had half a mind to punch him myself. He is so..." Siddharth trailed off unable to vocalize his discontent. 

"You were amazing, Siddharth," I said sincerely, "I didn't get a chance to thank you for what you did there but really I had no idea you were this badass," I smiled despite the situation. 

"Don't thank me for that. Please. It makes me feel like a stranger."

"But how did you manage to find me?" I asked the question that had been plaguing me since the moment Angad had called out my name the first time in that corridor. 

"I don't know. Yug found me near the washrooms. He was panting as he told me that you needed help and that Angad had gone in alone. We didn't waste a single second and started running. Yug seemed to know where you were." he said equally perplexed. 

"I am just glad that you came before..." I trailed off. 

"Yes. It's alright," he said soothingly. 

I nodded. Then I asked,

"Did you tell Virat everything? What are they doing now? What did they say."

"I told them everything I knew. They have called for back up I think and they are trying to find other YLF members in the college." 

"Are there more?" I asked a little worried.

"There might be but probably not. They would have come to help earlier if they were." Siddharth reasoned. 

"Alright, let us get our minds off of that. Should we go over the set once? I also need some water." I said looking around. 

Siddharth immediately got up and came back two minutes later with a bottle of water. 

"Thank you, you shouldn't have." I took the bottle from him gratefully and gulped down half the bottle of water. 

"Of course I should have. I need to make sure you are alright and in good shape to perform," he said. 

***

I was in the washroom bursting to pee after having downed the entire bottle of water in the past hour. The duet category was well underway and our turn was coming up soon. Siddharth and I had been practising our set for the past half hour and I was pleasantly surprised at well he knew it and how quickly he had picked up the little routine Angad and I had practised. 

We were going to give our best and I had total faith in Siddharth. My mind flashed back to the fight I had witnessed many weeks ago between Angad and Siddharth about this very issue. After having sung with both of them I was sort of siding with Siddharth.